In love? Married? Threat to national security?

How close can a reporter get to the subject she is covering? Close enough for her to call him a “close friend” and a “very polished person”? Close enough for him to call her as “no more than a good friend”? Close enough to receive a gold ring from him? Close enough to spark rumours that she may be having a romantic liaison? Close enough for speculation that they may be already married?

That is the unlikely position the Pakistani journalist Aroosa Alam finds herself in vis-a-vis former Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh. Two years after she visited India as part of a delegation of Pakistani journalists and was honoured by Singh, the reporter has become the reported.

Punjabi newspapers are reporting juicy details of Alam’s proximity to Singh, a scion of the erstwhile Patiala kingdom. And Singh is being roasted for his “trans-border ecapades” by rival politicians who are calling her a national threat. And Alam is threatening legal action against the rumour mongrels.